Minnesota in July

TRC is a big fan of weather, and weird weather, and extreme weather (except extreme heat). And to put it mildly, we’ve been having some bonkers weather in Minnesota recently. Currently, Minnesota is in the middle of a heat wave (granted, so is half the nation), which has provided the first ever 3-day string of 80 degree dew points, and a dew point of 81 degrees, which is also our record high. We’ve had consistent heat indexes from 105-115 degrees. It is hot.

In the middle of this heat-wave, today brought some severe thunderstorms. At about 11 am, the sky was pretty much midnight black. By 12 it had lightened a little, and brought downpours of rain and hale. Now it’s 1:30, bright and sunny and the heat is back. Here’s a pic from the High Bride, and two from the backyard.

Above is the darkness coming in to Downtown St. Paul as seen from the top of the High Bridge.

This is hail falling against the backdrop of our giant oak tree. And below is the hail that fell.

*UPDATE.
MPR said just now that we have broken our long standing dew point record (81) and reached 82 degrees. With our current temperature of 95, that makes our heat index (Feels Like) to 121.
I don’t mean to obsess over this. But really. This is unacceptable.